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Social technologies are helping—if not forcing—brands to form new kinds of relationships with customers. The problem is, traditional brand-management models aren’t up to the task, for two reasons: They’re designed for an outdated organizational structure and depend on people with the wrong skill sets.

Most companies separate the essential activities of communicating and fulfilling a brand promise into different functions, each of which has its own channels. Marketing communication articulates the promise. Corporate communications manages the brand’s reputation. Customer service handles inquiries and customer problems. Other functions, from product development to frontline retail operations, play important roles in delivering on the offer. But this fragmented approach can’t begin to present a coherent voice for the brand or support the relationship building that customers have come to expect in a hyperconnected world. Neither can the conventional brand manager, who typically is hired for skill at strategy and planning, talent at turning insight into innovation, and the ability to manage people and large budgets against business objectives. Though necessary general-management skills, these are not sufficient for the online age’s branding tasks.

Brand marketers today need an updated model that features a new type of executive who has digital savvy and is skilled at coordinating a variety of marketing and customer-facing activities—someone who functions like a circus ringmaster, expertly choreographing talent in real time to engage the audience in a seamless, interactive experience.

What Makes a Ringmaster?

Although the role of this new executive is not yet fully formed, my colleagues and I have developed a composite picture based on a study of more than 40 midsize and large companies that are leading the charge in social media marketing. Ringmasters have three capabilities in particular that distinguish them from classic brand managers.

Integrative thinking.

Ringmasters obviously are at home with social technologies but also have a strong understanding of brand mechanics and communications. They know how to combine the old with the new and harness the latest technologies to achieve brand objectives. And they can envision how those technologies can create fundamentally new types of value.

Consider how automobile brands such as Mini and Ford Fiesta are creating communities of enthusiasts who derive emotional value from connecting with one another. Social media are dramatically expanding the perimeter of these communities. Fiestamovement.com, for instance, has facilitated a “content creation factory” in the words of Jim Farley, Ford’s CMO. The site encourages enthusiasts to create and share video, blogs, and other original material that attract new members to the community. An investment of less than $5 million in Fiestamovement has achieved the same level of awareness that would be generated by a traditional media strategy for an auto launch, which typically costs tens of millions of dollars. Ringmasters like Scott Monty, Ford’s head of social media, are crucial in positioning organizations to capitalize on these sorts of value-creating opportunities.

Lean collaboration skills.

Ringmasters start with far fewer resources than brand managers do. They must therefore rely on persuasiveness and charm to beg, borrow, or otherwise co-opt people from across the organization and get them to work together on initiatives. This requires unusually high emotional intelligence, among other attributes.

At H&R Block, Zena Weist, the company’s newly hired social media director, sits inside the communications function, yet spends half of her time promoting cross-enterprise collaboration. Her brand experience (acquired in a previous job at Sprint) and strong people skills enable her to lead a virtual team composed of employees from customer service, marketing, and corporate communications.

When Weist landed at H&R Block, she quickly saw the need to enhance the company’s presence and responsiveness on social platforms. Recognizing that her small team wasn’t equipped to close the gap on its own, she collaborated with her peer in Client Service. Together, they built the case to “carve out” five personnel from the service organization to be a virtual extension of Weist’s team, with a set of mutually agreed-upon behaviors and metrics. Ultimately, the combined team cut across multiple functions, closed the responsiveness gap, and established a very positive social media presence for H&R Block.

High speed.

Classic brand managers operate on medium to long decision cycles, crafting strategies to guide activities and investments over years. Ringmasters, by contrast, work with short time frames, sometimes with daily cycles. They excel at using social technologies to detect emerging opportunities or threats and respond rapidly to them.

Jeanette Gibson, Cisco’s social media marketing director, set up her team to scan and react daily. In one recent product launch, the team identified key online gathering places for target customers, spotted and engaged with the discussion leaders there, and helped Cisco’s own subject-matter experts establish a presence in the dialogue, nudging the conversation toward the problems that the new product could address. The team closely monitored these exchanges, looking for keywords and rapidly cycling them into Cisco’s search-marketing efforts. Ultimately, the social team positioned the new product for one of the most successful launches in the company’s history.

Given these three required capabilities, what kind of background must ringmasters have? Beyond a clear passion for and knowledge of social technologies, they need an ear for stories that will play well, an instinct for developing external relationships, and a holistic sense of the enterprise’s communication priorities. Previous experience in corporate communications or marketing is a must; it gives ringmasters an appreciation for speaking with one brand voice, an understanding of how to best allocate marketing investments across touch points, and knowledge of techniques for measuring marketing effectiveness. A background in customer service, new product development, and even frontline operations can also be valuable, providing a broadened perspective that’s useful in understanding customers and promoting internal collaboration.

In a ringmaster, ultimately you are looking for an enterprise player, a catalyst for change, and an orchestrator who, by championing social technologies, will help you deliver the greatest show on earth—or whatever may be your own brand promise.

A version of this article appeared in the December 2010 issue of Harvard Business Review.